December eighth at twelve midnight, Valmont Sharp had ordered Nashton Wayte to bring is as many men from his private investigation team as he could to find Vargas Thanatos. They are not expecting him to strike until the night of the ninth but Thanatos is anything but predictable in his current state. If chief Randal knew what Sharp and his team were up to we would have put a stop to them. A private security firm scouring the streets of Albern is interfering with police procedure.
Victor Randal would be in an even worse mood if he learned that Nashton's men were watching his officers. It is a procedure that just payed off. Officer William “Willie” Green, a friendly by the books police officer just ran into Thanatos thinking he was just a normal criminal, ether a mugger or a rapist. That mistake cost Willie's partner his life and Willie himself only got away because Thanatos started messing with the down officer's body. Nash's man who was assigned to this police officer watched as the incident unfolded and then turned on his radio to listen into the police officer's call back to the station. He is also recording the conversation.
“This is officer Willie Green, we have an officer down on Seventh and Main. We were stopping what we thought was an attempted rape. Only when we confronted the man he was not raping her. He was eating her.”
“Eating her?”
“That is correct. he was opening up her stomach and he was eating her...” The officer turns away from the radio opens the door and pukes, “Guts, he was eating her guts. And that was not the worst of it, he did not seem human, his ears were pointed his face was narrow like an animal and his teeth were sharp.”
“Thanatos?”
“I, I believe so.” Clearly all the police training he went though did not get him ready for something like this. The officer looks out the window and sees that the wolf-man is still ripping into his partner. Willie stumbles at the keys trying to get them in the ignition before the creature turns his attention to him, “Me and Dexter confronted the man, and Dexter shot at him, got him in the arm. All that did was anger Thanatos who then jumped at Dexter.” Willie feels the keys find their way into the ignition, “Send back up.”
“Understood, back up will arrive at your location shortly.”
Willie turns off the radio and turns on the ignition, “Finally.” What he does not realize is when he turned the ignition he gained the attention of Vargas Thanatos who is now staring right at him. “Not now bastard, I'm getting out of here.” As he puts the car into drive and puts slams on the gas Vargas jumps at the car and slams one of his hands into the side window.
Willie drives the car like a wild man as the werewolf attempts pulls himself up, and pushes his head into the car. He growls at Willie and snaps at him with one of his hands but just misses the officer by mere inches. “Your not going to take me.” Willie looks at the beast and then the road, he is still on a side road and no one else is on the road. Willie then takes a hand off the wheel and goes for his gun.
Willie was focusing his attention on the werewolf and trying to aim his gun in such a difficult situation when he should have been watching where he was going. The car swerved off the road and slammed right into a tree and for what? To miss a target that is only a foot away from him four times. Willy has never been a good shot, that was always Dexter's strength. The crash into the tree forced Willie's air bag to open up to protect him from any damage.
The force also pushed the werewolf closer to him. When Willie moves the air bag out of his face he sees the strong beast's mouth mere inches from his face. He can smell the creatures bloody breath, feel it's hot breath on his skin, “Oh god, oh God.” Willie tries to move his arm that is closer to the beast, the one his gun was in but he can't. There is an intense pain when he tries to movie it, “No.”
He does not know if that arm is broken but he does know that a wild beast is squirming closer and closer to him so he has to move. The handle is there and when he tries to open the door nothing happens, “This can't be happening?” He closes his eyes and slams against the door with all his might, the door moves but opens only a sliver.
At this time the werewolf forces itself into the car further and with it's free hand slashes at the officer's throat. Willie who had struggled to life though the ordeal in vain died instantly.
Chief Victor Randal was awake when the dispatch called him. He had given the order that he is to be contacted when Vargas Thanatos is spotted. He wants to be there when the man went down. Because of this Victor has not been sleeping. The call is about Thanatos, Victor knew that the moment the phone started ringing. This will be his personal victory against Sharp. The Smug bastard of a showman turned his town upside down and Randal hates the man for it. After getting the call that Vargas was spotted on Seventh and Main he quickly gets dressed into his uniform and then calls for a squad of men to wait for him.
He took off in his car and heading off into the direction of the crime. When he got close he saw car number thirty seven. It was driving driving wildly down Seventh street then crashed a tree. While Randal did not get a good look at the car as it zoomed past he could have sworn he saw a man dangling out from the passenger window. Randal parked his car and looked at the wreck, indeed there was a man dangling out of window and forcing it's way into the car. He looks at the man in shock, “Thanatos?”
“Chief?” About ten uniformed officers get out of their squad cars. This is the back up Randal called for, he got here first. “So What's the situation chief?”
Randal looks at the car and then at the officers, “I haven't the slightest idea, I just got here myself. I think that's Thanatos.” he points at the car window.
“How did he get there?”
Victor Randal then snaps, “How should I know!” A cop hands him a blow horn, “Thanatos come out of the car.” But even as Victor says those words he realizes just how stupid that sounds. How is he going to get out of the car?
There is movement at the crashed patrol car, the door that Thanatos is dangling from starts to bend and the police see that the man is grabbing the car with his free hand and is using it to pull the door away. The strength he is showing with this move is inhuman. A loud noise comes out of the direction of the car, out of Thanatos, it is a loud howl, “AAAAAAAAARRRROOOOOOWWWW.”
Randal watches as the door bends as Thanatos pushes down. The chief of police is at a loss for words, “He must be on PCP.” He says to himself, that has to be it, that's the only way Thanatos could do something like this. Victor has seen drugged out people seem to feel no pain and preform what looked like super human feats but nothing like this. “Move away from the car slowly.” He finally screams into the megaphone.
Thanatos does not slow, down if anything he starts moving faster. He lets out a loud menacing growl as his feet reach the ground. The car door has bent down with him and is now holding on onto the car by one hinge. He then starts walking toward the cops and rips the car door off of his body and throws it to the ground. The half transformed wolf-man glares at the cops with glowing yellow eyes. He is nearly eight feet tall and throws his hands up as he howls into the moon, “AAARRROOOWWW”
Chief Randal signals for his men to point their guns at Thanatos and does the same with his service revolver. With the megaphone in his other hand he continues to yell orders to the human monster “Thanatos on the ground now.”
Thanatos mouth snaps shut and his head twists around to look strait into Victor's eyes. He looks at the chief of police and does not recognize the man. Thanatos has a full stomach so he does not see these officers as food. Still he is being pulled closer to them by a force beyond his control. 'RAMPAGE, The more death and destruction you cause the stronger our message will be.' Those thoughts are constantly blasted into his head and they keep him from forgetting what's important. “SSSHHHHAAAARRRRPPPP.” He hisses out of his mouth
Victor Randal has never dealt with such a dangerous situation, he is out of his comfort zone and he knows it. Normally the thieves and attempted rapists he deals with listen when he and his men corner th
em. Since Thanatos is his first mass murderer Randal is on edge and his trigger finger is itchy. He keeps telling himself not to shot unless provoked and he hopes his men do the same, “Steady.” He says to his men, “Stay calm and don't do anything rash. I want to take him alive.”
“Thanatos, I will not repeat myself again, stand down. Get down on the ground and spreed your arms.” The chief of police Commands.
Thanatos is just hearing noise, noise that is annoying because it won't stop. There is that voice in his head that's keeping him from going insane and that noise outside his head trying to drive him mad. He just can't take it. He does not understand what the man with the blow horn is saying. That man must be his target. Thanatos lets out a low growl and then starts walking toward Randal with a clawed hand pointed at the police chief.
“Stand down Thanatos or we will shoot.” Victor Randal yells at the mad man. Victor looks back at his men, “Hold still men, wait for my command.” He looks back at Thanatos who is now closer to him by a third and moving fast, “This is your last warning Thanatos, STAND DOWN.”
As he gets closer to the sound of the noise the pounding in his head gets worse and worse. Thanatos has to end the pain, to do that he must silence the sound. That man with the big horn he must be the source of the pain. Thanatos growls at Randal, glaring at him with bestial eyes, he wants to kill this man, he bends down and snaps his jaw, he is about to strike.
Randal realizing what is going to happen drops his megaphone and uses his free hand to steady his gun hand. He then commands his men, “He's not baking down, take him down.” Randal then fires off three shots at Thanatos.
The three shots all hit, two in the chest and one in his right arm, the three shots all explode with a stream of blood and Thanatos howls in pain. He stumbles back a few feet and puts his free hand over his chest. He then shrugs off the pain and acts like nothing happened, his wounds already seem to be healing seconds after he was hit.”
“The hell? Those were kill shots. THOSE WERE KILL SHOTS.” Victor Randal screams, he knows his aim was true and yet this man shrugged off his shots like nothing. “What is this man?”
“Chief.” A fellow officer says, he is pointing to Thanatos, “Look.”
“What?” Randal looks at his man and then looks back at Thanatos, he sees that the wounds are healing. “That, that is impossible.” he then fires at Thanatos three more times, this time aiming at his head. The first two shots fly past the man monster wildly while the third shot hits him just above the right eye. That deadly head shot should take him out, “That would kill anyone.”
Thanatos falls onto his back and laughs as he rises back up like the bullet that just hit his head was a bug bite. “GRAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.” The laugh is a dreadful monstrous sound that could not have came out of any human. Thanatos shines is blood stained teen at chief Randal, it is a smile that chills the chief of police to his bones.
Victor Randal has had enough by now, “Fire, fire, take this monster down, I don't care what it takes.” His men start firing at the man wolf, three fourths of the bullets are missing Thanatos as all of the cops are nervous wrecks who did not expect to see what just happened. Yet some are still hitting their target. Thanatos is hit with enough bullets to take down a small army. Yet Thanatos is barely even slowing down as all the bullets burn though his body. Nothing is stopping this man and he is getting ever closer to Randal and his cops. “If we can't stop him...” Randal mumbles to himself, “What will happen to my town?”
As if to give Randal and his officers some much needed hope a bullet fired from out of the right side of the police barricade flies out toward Thanatos. This bullet flies though the air with incredible speed and flashes in a way a normal bullet would not. The bullet hits Thanatos in the right shoulder and the wolf man's screams, “GRAAAA.” It is a loud yell different from the screams of pain he made before. This wound does not start instantly healing but instead smoke starts coming out of the wound. Two more bullets fly toward Thanatos from the right corner and hit him in the chest. A fourth shot is fired hitting Thanatos in the left knee and the wolf man stumbles back and then falls down on the ground.
“Whose there?” Randal calls out, not seeing who fired.
“Stand down Randal, you are out of your league.” Nashton Wayte the retired FBI agent turned private detective says as he walks into the light. Despite the very early time of the morning Wayte looks as professional as ever wearing his black suit and his tinted glasses. In his hand is a custom handgun that is still smoking after being fired three times. “Even someone as stubborn as you knows your dealing with something big here.”
Randal glares at the private investigator who he hates as almost much as Sharp. He hates everyone connected to Sharp and wishes he could drive them out of town. Still he motions for his men to stand down, “Keep an eye on Thanatos but don't shoot.”
Wayte walks closer to Randal while looking back at Thanatos who is still shaking in pain on the ground, “You and your men were just making the situation worse chief.” He offers the police chief his hand but is shot down.
“I told Sharp to stay out of this. I will deal with this myself. If this his idea of staying out of my town?” Randal screams at him.
Wayte smiles, “You know I don't answer to Sharp. What were your words to him? His not as retired as he seems FBI agent friend? Isn't that what you called me?” Wayte sees Randal's face go red with anger and has to stop himself from laughing, so he looks down and picks up Randal's megaphone.
“What are you doing?” Randal says fearing what he knows will happen.
“Cleaning up this mess before Thanatos recovers.” Wayte then moves the megaphone up to his mouth, “Vargas Thanatos, I know what you want and we both know this is not the way to get it. You want Valmont Sharp.”
Thanatos, mindless rampaging monster that he has became knows that word. A distant part of his mind recognizes the voice talking, but he can't remember. Still he stops struggling and lets out a strange sound, one of understanding. “GRAAaaa?”
“Hey this is not Sharp's move to make.” Randal grabs Wayte by the arm, “This is my town, my rules.”
Wayte snaps his fingers and two people in suits just like his walk out of the shadows. They are a man and a female and on the right side of their suits stitched in yellow are the words 'Wayte Investigators Limited.' “Grab him.” Wayte commands it and his men pull the chief of police away and hold him down. Wayte looks at the rest of the cops, “Please let me deal with this. If you want to arrest me and my men for our treatment of the chief go ahead but wait until after Thanatos is dealt with.”
Randal wants to tell his men to take Wayte and his investigators down, but after what he saw he does not believe his men can take down Thanatos. “Give him five minutes.”
That was pretty generous of Randal, under normal circumstances the chief of police would arrest anyone that looked at him funny. Nash knows he better make these five minutes count, “Move this out of town Thanatos. Take the fight to Sharp. We all know that's what you want.”
With his good hand Thanatos forces himself back up, he howls in pain as he forces his shot leg to lift his weight. He snaps his head around and looks right at Wayte with mindless eyes. There is then a spark of intellect in them that was long forgotten and he opens his mouth, “GGRRAAASSSHHAARRPP.” It is a bestial sound that forms a simple word.
“So you can still talk huh Vargas, that's good. I'm not Sharp but you do know me, I'm Nashton Wayte.”
“Yessssss I know you.” Thanatos says with a clarity that his mind alone is no longer capable of expressing. Some other force is making him speak. “I know what Sharp wantsssssss. we will not let him control the situation.”
“We?” Wayte says to himself, he knows Vargas Thanatos's voice and while it is Thanatos talking he can hear a second voice talking over him. “I could kill you now, you're weak and I have two snipers aiming at your heart with silver bullets. I am giving you a fair chance.”
Randal tries to speak
out against what Wayte just said but as he struggles Wayte's men push down on him and he chokes on his voice. “Well, give into Sharp's offer or die.”
Thanatos or who ever was actually in control of Thanatos thinks about it for a second, “Fine tell us what you want. Thanatos is too valuable to be lost in vain. We will listen.” The second voice is much clearer to Wayte now. He thinks he has heard it before.
“Take the battle to Sharp Manor and just leave Albern alone. You will have plenty opportunity for bloodshed at the manor.”
“Indeed who could stop us.” Thanatos stops for a second, and then raises his voice again, “Fine, we will attack the manor and leave the town alone.” Thanatos jumps up and away from the police.
The police officers are dumbfounded at the situation, they are looking at chief Randal who has just been let go by Wayte's men. Randal pulls out his gun and points it right in Wayte's face, “Give me one reason why I should not take you in right now?”
Wayte does not flinch, the short tempered police chief of Albern New Mexico does not intimidate him. “My employer, Mr. Sharp is going to allow you to be in on taking down Thanatos. He wants you and police force to be the heroes of the hour. He has told me to invite you and a couple of your best men to a meeting later today at Sharp Manor. You and your men will be briefed and let in on everything.”
“What makes Sharp think I'm going to jump though hoops for him? That arrogant bastard thinks I will work for him?” The offer did nothing more then piss Randal off more then he already was.
“At least hear him out. Then if you still want out you can put cuffs on me and my men.” Nashton Wayte starts to walk away as confident as ever when Randal takes out a pair of hand cuffs, grabs Nashton Wayte by the hands and cuffs them. “That your answer?” Nash says smugly.
“Yeah I will be there and see what he has to say. So will you. But still I'm taking you in for the crap you and your men pulled just now.” Randal then orders his officers to take Nashton's men to the station and that he will be bringing in Nash himself. Nashton Wayte smiles to himself, this is exactly what he wanted, to let Randal think he has the upper hand.
Book Three: Sharp Manor
Chapter Twenty One
Valmont Sharp: Monster Hunter Page 22
